G20 to help boost global trade, investment: MOC official

HANGZHOU - Several documents that are likely to be ratified at the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) summit will promote trade facilitation, curb protectionism and boost cross-border investment, an official with China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Saturday.

It is hopeful for the G20 summit scheduled for Sept 4-5 to ratify a G20 Strategy for Global Trade Growth, which may become a guiding document for G20 members' trade cooperation, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen said at a press conference.

During a G20 Trade Ministers Meeting in Shanghai in July 2016, consensus was reached upon the strategy, which included principles and measures to lower trade cost, boost trade in services and enhance trade finance.

Wang said that G20 members need to take effective measures to boost global trade amid lackluster world trade growth and rising trade protectionism.

World trade growth has been lower than global economic growth for four consecutive years since 2012, and about 2,800 trade restricting measures have been rolled out by World Trade Organization members since October 2008, with 75 percent of them still effective now.

Complicated regulations for global investment have also brought inconvenience to investors, as there are currently more than 3,300 investment agreements around the world, Wang said.

Business leaders from G20 members have called for action to solve the problem and create a sound investment environment, according to the vice minister.

As a result, China for the first time pushed investment policy coordination onto the G20 agenda this year, Wang said.

If ratified, G20 Guiding Principles for Global Investment will become the general framework of global investment regulations and represent a historical step in multilateral investment policy coordination, Wang added.